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‘Law and Order: SVU’ 17×1 and 17×2 recap – The squad try and take down a traitor in the midst

In one of TV’s longest shows, Law and Order: SVU is returning for its 17th season and it’s going to accept the challenge of trying to find new and exciting ways to surprise its fans. The show has morphed and changed as the world has changed and has had shows that relates to what is going on in the media. Last year, some of the most talked about shows consisted of SVU has also joined forces with the other two Dick Wolf shows, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD twice last year in some of the highest rated cross-over shows for each show. It is expected to happen at least once this season as well. Benson has finally gotten custody of her son, Noah, and we had to say good-bye to another face we have fell in love with as Nick Amaro (Danny Pino). In the season finale, Amaro got shot in the line of fire and decided to retire with the knowledge that he won’t be able to advance his career.

In tonight’s two-hour premiere, titled “Devil’s Dissections” and “Criminal Pathology”, Benson and her squad revisit an old case where the killer buried the bodies and Barba has a hard time convicting the killer because of some skilled lawyers. Barba certainly has work cutting out for him in the season opener and it looks like there is a lot in store for us this season. Benson is going to continue to juggle her life as a mom for Noah while keeping the squad in line. We will see how long it will last, if at all, before Amaro’s position is replaced. No doubt, Carisi is going to have a bigger role this season and hopefully he can shake off that rookie season as he has big shoes to fill.

The show picks up with the squad finding out that they have bad or worse news. It looks like we will get to see Yates (the man who killed Nadia from Chicago PD) again. Either they missed some important information when investigating Yates, or there is a copycat. This leads us to the bad vs. worse news. That means that Yates could be helpful or he could just make things worse for them. And things don’t get any better as the victim falls under the same ‘target’ that Yates used to use. The only problem is that she is a red-head and Yates strictly likes brunettes. But as the case progresses, we see that Yates has a connection with another victim and the new suspect.

Yates plays his card as much as he could. He gives Rollins and Finn a location of a man who he stitched up who he made a house call for. And it pays out because he is able to find them another victim that got buried into the wall in a suitcase. Point for Rollins for questioning Yates, but it makes another big wrinkle in the case as we start to wonder if Yates is the original or the copycat. After getting a deal to conjugate with his fiancée, he gives them a name Carl Rudnick. And guess who he is? That’s right, the current ME.

To cover their tracks, Melinda redoes the autopsies of the two victims that they found and of course she finds some ‘flaws’ in the report. At first, its tiny little things like the timeline being off a few weeks (explained away from overworking) but the tiny detail of when the cuts were done maybe the smoking gun they need to investigate Rudnick. This comes with a double-edged sword at Yates uses this as a way to try and attempt that he should be let go.

It’s not the slam dunk case that Barba had expected it would be as Rudnick has the money to get a very good lawyer. The very same lawyer that got Benson out of her little jam last season with Lewis. Her morals gets challenged as Yates’s fiancée gets found chopped up into pieces. This gets more complicated when they find out that Susie was pregnant. In the search for Rudnick, they find out that Rudnick stole a homeless woman’s identity and used her to get an apartment that he used to do up his cutting. But they get lucky when Rudnick slips up and gets caught shoplifting while trying to flee to Canada.

Barba gets backed into a corner and he has to make a tricky play involving Rollins and Yates. But Rudnick has a new trick up his sleeve as he hires another big name defense lawyer to help with the defense. The judge separated the charges which means that it’s going to be even harder to convict Rudnick. He needs that thigh to convict but Benson is convinced that they don’t need it.

On to the trial. Of course the defense lawyers bring up Yates’s involvement in Nadia’s murder and their conjugate visit. And the ‘favor’ that Barba asked of Rollins comes and bites them in the butt. Rudnick on trial says that it was self-defense and his defensive wounds can help support that, but that leads the question, why cut up her body? Don’t matter, because Carisi and Rollins share MVP with this case as they find the nail in Rudnick’s coffin. The interview room where Barba and Benson first questioned him was recorded and Rudnick confesses his crimes in it. But, he gets away with Susie’s murder.

Rollins comes out about her pregnancy to Benson (this would have been a lovely surprise if Kelli Giddish didn’t announce her pregnant but either way congrats to her!) We get a flashback to the days of Friends as we don’t know who the father is. According to her, it’s not Amaro’s. She keeps saying that every time anyone asks. Almost a little too defensively. She asks Benson to keep her in the squad for a little while longer because she knows that once 1PP finds out, they will put her on restrictive.

In the next episode, three boys taunt a young man who is dressed in women’s clothes and it ends up with the young man being accidentally killed. Things seem to go as manslaughter until the DA steps in and charged the young boy with murder.